Aizen stood quietly in place, his gaze falling upon the figure at the edge of the ruins.
Unohana Retsu.
She had arrived far too suddenly.
Moreover, the moment Unohana landed, her line of sight had swept over the direction of this hillside.
That was not a casual glance; it was an instinctive lock-on after her perception had caught some sort of anomaly.
But at that exact moment, Aizen had already activated Kyoka Suigetsu, completely concealing the figures of himself, Tosen Kaname, and Ichimaru Gin.
'As expected of someone who has lived for over a thousand years,' Aizen thought to himself.
Just this accumulation of Spiritual Pressure and this level of environmental perception were enough to intimidate an entire region.
If they were to fight, Aizen was confident he could defeat her.
However, considering her mastery of Kendo, her millennium of accumulated combat experience and Spiritual Pressure, along with a Bankai she had never revealed to others—to truly take her down would likely exact a significant toll.
His plan was only halfway complete; the subsequent maneuvers of exposing the Quincy and framing Urahara Kisuke were still waiting for him to set into motion.
Clashing head-on with the first generation Kenpachi here was not part of his plan.
Subsequently, Aizen's heart sank a fraction.
Unohana's appearance here meant that the pawn he had planted in the Seireitei had already been discovered.
But he had specially selected that body double. After careful adjustments via Kyoka Suigetsu, the texture of his Spiritual Pressure, his appearance, and his voice were completely identical to Hasumi Ren.
His behavior and mannerisms had also been personally trained by Aizen. From daily interactions and attitudes toward colleagues, to even his tone and phrasing when speaking to Unohana, Aizen had made that squad member practice repeatedly.
In just the short time since the replacement, how did Unohana manage to find out?
Aizen frowned slightly, then stopped dwelling on it.
'Fair enough. No matter how perfect the imitation, it's hard to deceive a Captain who has had such close contact with Hasumi Ren.'
It was unlike his relationship with Hirako Shinji, which was strictly guarded with very little interaction. He could easily pick someone from the Fifth Division, adjust them slightly, and have them attend various occasions in his stead without ever being seen through.
It was just a pity that Unohana's appearance was truly ill-timed.
Aizen raised his hand, tapping his fingertips lightly against the hilt of Kyoka Suigetsu. He blocked Unohana's sense of hearing, preventing her from picking up any sounds coming from this direction.
Then, he looked toward Hasumi Ren in the center of the ruins.
"Ren, do not expose our presence."
Having said that, Aizen watched Ren with curiosity, wanting to see how he would handle himself in front of Unohana.
The current situation, while not meeting his expectations, was still quite amusing.
Now, it all depended on Unohana's attitude toward Ren.
She had every reason to strike down Ren, this seemingly traitorous Vice-Captain.
As an accomplice in the attempted murder of multiple Captains, any single charge was enough to make her draw her blade.
If she truly possessed killing intent, then no matter what thoughts Ren harbored, he would have no way out and could only follow Aizen down this dark path to the bitter end.
But if Unohana intended to shield Ren...
Such a situation probably wouldn't occur.
After all, harming comrades was a severe crime.
Ren had only been part of the Fourth Division for two years. How could the bond between him and Unohana run that deep...
Unohana's gaze fell upon Hasumi Ren.
Her Zanpakuto remained sheathed, but an icy Spiritual Pressure had already began to spread from her body, surging silently between the rubble of the ruins.
She looked at Ren, looking at the partial skeletal mask covering his face, looking at the Zanpakuto in his hand still dripping with Hirako Shinji's blood, and looking at the Captains collapsed all over the ground behind him, currently being eroded by Hollowfication.
"What happened here."
Her voice was very soft, but every word carried a blade-like chill.
"Why is there a fake Hasumi Ren following by my side."
Ren looked at Unohana, the fingers gripping his Zanpakuto tightening slightly.
He hadn't expected Unohana to appear here.
The person he was waiting for was Urahara Kisuke.
Logically speaking, Urahara should have noticed the anomaly much earlier, yet Unohana had arrived first.
This meant that Urahara had failed to directly expose the body double during the Captains' meeting; instead, it was Unohana who had found the flaw and took action herself.
How was he supposed to explain this now?
Aizen had just told him not to expose their presence.
Ren's perception had also caught the activation of Kyoka Suigetsu at that exact moment.
The figures of Aizen, Tosen Kaname, and Ichimaru Gin on the hillside became slightly transparent, as if separated by a thin layer of mist.
This was... going to be tricky.
Aizen was watching; Unohana was asking.
Every word he spoke would be heard by Aizen, and Unohana would absolutely not easily overlook any clues.
If he defended himself, it would be equivalent to exposing his stance to Aizen. If he didn't defend himself, it would be a tacit admission of guilt.
Aizen stood on the hillside. Kyoka Suigetsu could alter Unohana's perception at any time, and could even change all the traces he himself had left on this battlefield.
Ren's mind spun rapidly, and he soon had an idea.
He tilted his head back and let out a savage roar.
The Hollowfied Spiritual Pressure in his body, which had just broken through to Level 6, was ignited to its absolute limit in an instant. Dark red Spiritual Pressure erupted outward like a bursting flood.
The skeletal mask no longer covered just half his face. Instead, bone poured from his orifices simultaneously, layering and fusing together until it formed a complete, full-coverage skeletal visage.
Once the mask was fully formed, the transformation did not stop.
Two bony horns curved upward from his temples, growing backward, their tips sharp as spears and gleaming with a cold luster.
Above his shoulders, milky-white bone surged from beneath his skin, plating downward along his deltoids. Fine, dark red veins surfaced upon them, like spiritual crests engraved onto a Hollow's shell.
The bone armor continued to extend from his shoulder blades down his back, arranging into two rows of bone spikes along the sides of his spine.
The fronts of his forearms were similarly covered in bone armor, forming a set of natural vambraces from his wrists to his elbows, while his fingertips hardened into skeletal claws.
And on his chest, a pitch-black Hollow hole appeared.
Ren's Spiritual Pressure skyrocketed. Surging waves of air blasted outward, blowing back Unohana's long hair.
Unohana frowned slightly, watching the changes taking place on Ren's body before her.
At this moment, Ren stopped roaring and slowly turned his head to look at Unohana.
His Spiritual Pressure was rampaging and violent, appearing completely out of control.
Unohana looked at Ren's current appearance and furrowed her brows.
She had seen Ren's Hollowfication before. Though it hadn't been as ostentatious as this, it had never shown such a manic display.
Unohana then seemed to comprehend something. Sensing the slight anomaly in their surroundings, she appeared to understand what Ren was thinking.
Her hand pressed against the hilt of her Zanpakuto, releasing her Spiritual Pressure without reservation.
"Since you don't wish to speak..."
Her thumb gently pushed the tsuba, and the blade slid from its sheath, glinting with a cold, piercing light under the sun.
"Then let me see how many rounds you can survive under my blade in this current state of yours."
Before her voice even faded, Unohana's figure had already vanished from where she stood.
Her sword was so fast that it didn't even leave behind the afterimage of a Flash Step.
In the next instant, Ren brought his left arm in front of him, the bone armor on his forearm directly meeting Unohana's blade.
The moment the tip of the blade struck the surface of the bone armor, a blinding spark erupted. The blade carved a shallow score into the armor, as thin as a strand of hair.
Unohana retracted her blade and spun around, her second strike sweeping in from the side with even greater force.
Ren turned sideways to dodge. The blade grazed past the bone spikes beneath his ribs, the sharp friction producing a high-pitched whine that pierced the air.
He hadn't completely evaded it; the tip of the blade left a visible gash on the skin over his ribs.
It seemed that even with the reinforcement of his Hierro, he still couldn't block Unohana's edge, but the bone armor on his forearms could.
Ren stepped back twice. Dark red Reishi surged from his wound, and the sword cut rapidly reconstructed and healed within the Reishi.
High-Speed Regeneration.
For ordinary injuries, Ren could now fully repair them mid-battle by expending a small amount of Spiritual Pressure.
The curve at the corner of Unohana's mouth deepened. She didn't give him a single moment to relax.
Unohana was no longer holding back. A barrage of ferocious slashes hacked down from various angles.
Ren swung his sword to parry, relying on his High-Speed Regeneration to allow some non-lethal strikes to land on him.
He was testing the limits of his High-Speed Regeneration in the most direct way possible, and the results were positive.
As long as his Spiritual Pressure was sufficient and no vital organs were struck, his current High-Speed Regeneration could completely shrug off ordinary wounds in the heat of battle.
The next moment, Ren's counterattack began.
He pulled his right arm back, and a dark red Cero condensed in his palm.
Unohana leveled her blade and cleaved straight through the incoming Cero.
The Cero detonated against her edge, dark red Reishi shockwaves rippling outward and blowing back the loose bangs on her forehead.
Unohana burst through the explosive Reishi smoke. A small patch of her hem was scorched by the Cero's aftermath, but the hand gripping her sword remained as steady as a boulder.
Ren fired consecutive Ceros. Unohana dodged with Flash Steps, then reappeared directly in front of Ren, slicing the Ceros apart before they could fully expand. The explosive fallout couldn't even touch the body of her Zanpakuto.
In the next second, the speed of her swings violently surged to a whole new magnitude, using the sheer momentum of her slashes to suppress the concussive force of the Ceros.
The two fought their way from the center of the ruins all the way to the edge of the wasteland.
After dodging another Cero assault, Unohana closed the distance to suppress him once more.
Her strikes became increasingly dense and fast. A torrential fighting spirit was bleeding out from her blade, bit by bit.
Illuminated by the flashing steel, that perpetually serene face gradually grew flush with excitement amid the battle.
Her speed increased yet another fraction.
As this blade hacked toward Ren's left shoulder, Ren stepped aside while retaliating with a backhanded claw swipe aimed at Unohana's right ribs.
This was the closest Ren had gotten to her since their clash began. The tips of his skeletal claws scraped the outer edge of Unohana's right arm, tearing through her Shihakusho and leaving three shallow, bloody gouges on her skin.
Unohana pulled back to open up the distance. She glanced down at the injury on her arm, then raised her head to look at the equally wounded Ren, the corners of her lips turning up slightly.
"You aren't the only one capable of healing yourself in battle, Ren..."
The pale green light of Kaido bloomed over Unohana's wound, instantly mending the bloody scratches.
Ren tilted his head slightly. The bone armor on his arms was already covered in a web of fine cracks.
His High-Speed Regeneration was continuously repairing them, but the rate of mending was falling further and further behind the speed of Unohana's destruction.
Although he could still keep fighting, his Hollowfied Spiritual Pressure wasn't infinite.
He still needed a strategy to break this deadlock.
In the next moment, Ren howled at the sky and clashed with Unohana once again.
On the distant hillside, Aizen quietly watched the battle unfold.
His eyes closely followed Unohana's every movement. Every single detail was taken in and stored within the mental assessment file he kept on her combat capabilities.
'The first generation Kenpachi. Formidable indeed.'
To possess such combat power without even using Shikai—her mastery of swordsmanship had reached a level that the vast majority of Captains could only gaze at in despair.
'If Unohana were to use her Bankai...'
Aizen's gaze narrowed slightly.
Truth be told, even he did not have absolute certainty that he could emerge completely unscathed from a battle against Unohana.
Intervening now would not be worth the risk.
He could try using the Hogyoku to Hollowfy her, but he didn't know if the current, incomplete Hogyoku would even work on an individual with such monstrous Rei-i.
Aizen hesitated inwardly. After all, Unohana was not the target of this excursion.
Moreover, Ren's display of Hollowfication left him even more bewildered.
Why had he reached a level of Hollowfication that so far exceeded expectations? After all, the Hogyoku hadn't been applied to him; such a transformation shouldn't have occurred.
The changes currently manifesting on Ren actually drew Aizen's attention much more.
Tosen Kaname stood beside Aizen, his perception strictly locked onto the distant battlefield.
"To achieve such a degree of impact with nothing but pure slashes... this is truly..."
A fine layer of sweat beaded on his forehead, and the hand gripping Suzumushi tightened slightly.
Every one of Unohana Retsu's strikes left an intense afterimage in his perception. With that kind of speed and power, if he were in Hasumi Ren's shoes, he probably wouldn't last more than a few exchanges...
He couldn't even be sure how much of an effect the sensory deprivation of Suzumushi Tsuishiki would have on an opponent of her caliber.
Ichimaru Gin narrowed his eyes, his messy silver hair swaying gently in the wind. He stared intently at the two figures moving so fast they were practically untraceable to the naked eye.
He was watching with even greater trepidation. The sheer magnitude of the battle currently raging between the two of them cast quite a shadow over the young Gin's heart.
Unohana forced Ren back with a strike. Standing among the ruins, her breathing had grown heavy.
She looked at Ren. In those eyes that were no longer calm, something was being suppressed—something that was gradually waking up.
She hadn't experienced a battle of this intensity in a very long time.
Opposite her, the gashes sliced into Ren's arms were healing at a visible rate, and the fractures in his bone armor were mending step by step.
It seemed Ren still had plenty of Spiritual Pressure left. In terms of endurance, he had already surpassed Unohana's base state.
Numerous wounds, large and small, had appeared on Unohana's body as well.
Even with the healing of Kaido, the toll it took on her Spiritual Pressure and physical stamina was quite burdensome.
Ordinary methods were no longer sufficient if she wanted to decisively take down Ren in this form.
However, her Shikai was not suited for combat. 'Had this bout with Ren truly reached the point where I need to unleash my Bankai...?'
In the distance, Aizen's group also sensed that if Unohana didn't release her Zanpakuto soon, she would likely fall into a disadvantage in the ensuing battle.
Just as the few of them were quietly observing how the situation would unfold, two Spiritual Pressures rapidly closed in on the area from the direction of the Seireitei.
The owners of the Spiritual Pressures made no attempt to conceal their tracks, rushing toward these ruins at full Flash Step speed.
Unohana's gaze shifted slightly for a split second.
Between his gasps for air, Ren also picked up on that familiar Spiritual Pressure.
The ones to break the deadlock had finally arrived.